Being a student comes with a lot of challenges. The good thing is that there are ways in which you can make it fun and enjoyable. Nowadays, unlike the old days, there are startups that are massively useful for students. These startups are meant to make your life a bit easier. We are going to look at some of them.

Clusterflunk

With Clusterflunk, you are able to connect easily with your class members. You will be able to share notes and even files with your classmates. The best part about it is that you can access it for free and you also have the opportunity of hiding your identity.

Study blue

If you want to improve the way you learn, then study blue is the best deal. You can make use of their apps to create flashcards that you can use for studying. Have you been lagging behind in your studies? Well, study blue allows you to have study reminders. This will ensure that you create a habit of studying.

Pave

Do you have money that you do not want to use right away? You can put it into good use. How you ask? With pave you can invest this money to other people. You will receive your money back and you can use it as needed. There is no interest and so you do not have to worry about not getting your money back.

Tree house

If you have an interest in building android or iOS apps, then tree house is the place to be. You will get video courses that will guide you on how you are supposed to go about creating apps. Apart from these videos, there are also quizzes and challenges that you can do to find out of your performance.

Coursera

Using your computer, you will be able to have the learning course of Stanford machine. They are in partnership with several universities worldwide to allow you get free college courses. There are videos that will allow you to rewind lectures in case there is a point you did not understand.

Trello

Group projects can be stressful if there is no proper communication. Trello is a free way in which you will be able to coordinate your group projects. It will give you the opportunity off creating boards for your projects. You can have another board for tasks and assign each member his task. It will make your work a lot easier.

Khan academy

This startup allows you to get world class education. They have a learning dashboard that will allow you to get interactive lessons. This dashboard will keep a record of the things you have already mastered and the areas where you need to work more. You will be able to get badges that will show you how you are performing. At the moment, this dashboard is offering only mathematics but they are improving their services so as to provide other subjects.

More often than not, Canadian English happens to be more complex, even though essentially we speak the same language. However, Canadians happen to always put a nice, but very uncanny spin on things. It is what makes them so unique. Throughout the decades, the English language has evolved and we’ve found some very uncommon and unlikely vocab along the way.

10 English Words You Only Hear in Canada

As I’ve said before, Canadians are a tad unique and do things differently than most other users of the English language, and somehow these strange words have become popular in Canada. The mystery is beyond me.

Two-Four and Beer store

It is not secret that Canadian’s have weird drinking tendencies; apparently the titles follow the same behavior. Two-Four is a fancy term for a 24 case of beer, also not often sold in the states. Beer store is pretty much a strict Canadian thing, meaning a store that sells alcohol exclusively.

Pint

Then there are pints, otherwise known as 16 ounces within the states.

Double-Double

Although primarily used with Tim Horton’s, the term “double-double” is now used in Canada as an expression-meaning coffee with two sugars and two creams. It’s odd, but supposedly works for those too lazy for direct orders. Just never ask your nearest Starbucks for one, there are no guarantees you won’t receive odd looks.

Paemeal/Back Bacon

Paemeal or otherwise known as back-bacon in Canada is referring to brined-slices of pork-loin coated-in-cornmeal, which is akin to a thin pork-chop more than original bacon. Get your Paemeal, meal on?

Tuque/toque/touque

This strange word has several different spellings, and as many different meanings. Often it is referred to a bennie, knit cap, or stocking cap. This style is a-symbol of French-Canadian nationalism following the 1837 rebellion—but now serves as a way to keep your ears warm. Irony is truly outstanding, and not just a word Canada uses too!

Toboggan

Seriously, this weird word means is sled. That’s it. Just sled.

Hydro

So usually your water bills come in the form of “hydro”, but that is hardly the case with Canada. It’s almost quite the opposite. Hydro in Canada refers-to electricity, also taking its name from the term “hydroelectric power” that gives us electricity. It makes sense.

Toonie

A Canadian $2 coin and no one really knows how it got its name. We don’t really question it.

Pencil Crayon

A Canadian way of saying “colored pencil”. Pencil crayon almost seems more appealing, still odd and an unlikely word in the-states.

Mountie

A Mountie is simply a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, often found on a horse back before cars were invented. Mountie’s been around for a long, long while.

English is indeed a funny language for those who do not understand the nuances. Alan Jay Lerner made people laugh at the funny mistakes in English grammar and English conversation through his beautiful musical ‘My Fair Lady’. The question still remains unanswered, ‘Why can’t the English learn to speak?’. People misuse English language and make amends in grammar to suit their style of conversing. The beautiful language may soon be an artifact in one of the world’s large museums if we do not pass the correct language to the future generations.

Writers and orators make mistakes in English grammar because they often focus on the vocabulary of the language. They forget the essence of the language. They fail to understand English grammar. People around the world make similar mistakes in English grammar. You must know what the common flaws in your language are to prevent them from happening. Here are some of the most common grammar errors that people make in English.

Wrongly Placed Punctuation

This is one common mistake people often make while writing. They fail to understand the difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. Well, this may appear like a trivial flaw to the one who writes the article. Now, have a look at the sentences where these mistakes are made.

‘The peacock spread its feathers to reveal the beautiful blue and green shades’

If the above sentence is replaced by ‘it’s’ that actually means ‘it is’, the whole meaning of the sentence changes. People need to understand the difference and consciously avoid it.

Misplaced modifiers

People commonly use a group of words or clauses to describe some other word or noun in the sentence. You must make sure you use the group of words in the right order. If you place the modifiers wrongly, the meaning of the entire sentence may change completely. Check out a few common examples of misplaced modifiers.

‘The pretty Asian girl was walking the dog in the garden in a beautiful long skirt.’

The sentence conveys that the dog was wearing a long skirt. You may divide the sentence into simpler sentences to convey the message clearly.

Faulty Parallelism

This is yet another common grammar error people make when they write essays or long articles. It is necessary that two parts of a sentence should be of the parallel meanings and forms. Very often people fail to maintain the balance. In such cases, the clauses are parallel in meaning but not in their form. Here is a very simple example.

‘He dances, sings and is good at playing games too.’ This is a faulty parallelism because the first two words, dances and sings, are action verbs. A gerund form ‘playing’ does not match the action verbs in form. You must make sure that the different parts of a sentence are in agreement with each other.

Confused Words

This is a common grammar folly and you must be careful not to make it. You must not confuse between the meanings of words. This can lead to blunder in language. Here are some common examples of confused words.

‘I would like to have everything in the buffet menu accept this.’

People commonly confuse accept with except. You can notice the drastic difference in the meanings of the two words.

Such errors should be avoided so that you do not make a fool out of yourself. Like, seriously, didn’t you take English courses in high-school?

It is high time we should take measures to understand grammar and its unique inflections. The language needs to be preserved before it becomes history.

Did you know that summer is actually the best time to visit different college campuses in order to start putting together your entire college list? Most colleges specifically smaller ones for instance liberal arts schools give students an opportunity to do on-campus interviews usually with a current student or an officer. If you get a chance in such a college then take them.

However, preparing for an interview especially a college one can be very stressful because you may not know exactly what to expect during the interview. Below are a few simple tips to prepare for college interviews.

Bring an activity sheet or a resume

This is very essential because most interviewers will use this as a focus and guide to their series of questions concerning your resume. You must be prepared to answer questions that touch on your daily life and the things that you normally do or engage in.

Brush up on the big headlines

Mind you, you do not have to be a professional on every single detail about foreign and domestic policies although it is imperative that you sound like an informed person. The best sources for major news and headlines include: the Wall Street or the New York Times or any other reputable newscast; you can also consider podcasts like for instance NPR.

You must be able to discuss a favorite book that was not assigned in school

This is yet another important factor to consider. Now, if you do not remember any particular book or the last time you read a book that was assigned in school, then you may need to check on the best seller list for instance in the New York Times.

Look for good sources. Make sure you avoid clichés like the “Twilight” or the “Harry Potter”

If you do not love fiction, the look for biographies concerning persons you really admire or look for a subject of interest.

Practice talking about your academic interests

Most interviewers tend to ask about normal things like for instance your favorite high school teacher or subject. However, it is also great to have interests on other things that are not typically offered in high schools for example psychology, philosophy or economics. You should be able to communicate knowledge very well and with excitement about all your academic interests no matter how or what they are.

Mention some interesting instances that you do outside of the class

Discuss about things you love doing during your free time, make sure you also mention why you enjoy doing them and what lessons you learn from them. Another thing you can talk about is extracurricular activities and how you are planning to continue even in college.

Find a course or an issue you care about

Most colleges want students who will use the college education to make an impact in the world. Therefore a good interviewee should be able to depict that you really care about things that affect the society as a whole and not just personal issues. The last thing you need to do is to learn all about the college you are hoping to join. Familiarize yourself with the organization and its surroundings.

In this 21st century, technology has changed everything in our life from the way we communicate to the way we go on with our life. Technology has definitely changed our learning and teaching methods too. From paper presentation to taking down notes in class, everyhting is different now from what it has been in the past. The following are 10 ways technology has changed the way we study.

1. Communication

Texting has become so common and now students even text notes or other study materials in the form of texts. Students no longer pass notes in class, they just text.

2. Glogs

Gone are the times when students had to present boards for history or science fair. In this modern times, students are using tools such as Web 2.0 like Glogster, which are changing the entire poster presentation experience. The Glogster is a platform for sutdents to create a multimedia “glog” or a poster for demonstarting their project topics and present it beautifully to the audience.

3. Good bye to heavy books

There is no longer the need to carry those heavy binders across the hallways anymore running from clasroom to clasroom. A desktop computer or a tablet is enough to store all the files and handouts in neat folders. One can create a binder online too by using a web 2.0 tool, LiveBinders.

4. Innovative textbooks

The idea if a textbook is changing completely with time. Textbook is no longer one with just text and pictures to describe the matter. The modern textbooks have web-based sites that include animatons, videos, pictures, assessments and lots of other stuff where new content can be read.

5. E-books and E-library

Ebooks are becoming more prevalent in schools these days with easy availability ot e-readers and tablets. In the near future students so not have to carry bulky backpacks. Now even libraries have become advance. The LSE Digital Library and World Digital Library holds rare edition of books, which is very beneficial for students. The PDFs are cheaper than hardbacks, therefore students find it much more easier to simply login to a laptop or a tablet or an e-reader and access the necessary information than carry multiple books to school.

6. Chalk boards slowly disappearing

In the past teachers used to jot down information on paper or chalkboard and students used to copy them, but now new programs and web based tools are being used by teachers for teaching students, which is more interactive and intersting to the students.

7. Web-Based Research

Though libraries are still the prime areas where one goes for gathering information, yet research and learning has become more web-based these days. Information that used to take hours to find in the library, now it takes just as few minutes instantaneously on the web now. It has become easier to how to find and use information efficiently now in less time.

8. Multimedia content

Teachers had to bring a small television into the classroom and a DVD in the past to teach students or show them some videos, but now all the teacher has to do is to plug in MacBook to an ActivBoard and play a video from the You Tube or some other channel. Some groups create multimedia content such as flash games and interactive quizzed for all age students.

9. Online exams

Many exams can now be written online as more and more universities are conducting online based exams and it is very beneficial students especially those that are homeschooled.

10. iPads are powerful educational tools

iPads are powerful tools for teaching and learning with som many application that enhance the experience of learning especially for students with special needs such as Autism.